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The Oregon Project in Edinburgh !

Posted by admin on March 9th, 2017

“The Oregon Project and other works:
A Keith Salmon landscape retrospective in light and sound.”

The Oregon Project was first exhibited at the 9e2 Art, Science and Technology exhibition in Seattle in October 2016. Below are links that will take you to an article and short video made by Microsoft to help promote the work.
Article: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/keith-salmon-oregon-project/
Video: https://www.facebook.com/Microsoft/videos/10154184382973721

The work will soon be present in Scotland at the Tent Gallery. Details of the exhibition:

Tent Gallery,
Edinburgh College of Art,
Evolution House,
78 West Port
Edinburgh
EH1 2LE

Exhibition preview: Friday April 7th, 5pm – 8pm
Exhibition runs: Saturday 8th April – Saturday 22nd April 2017
Open:   Daily, 11am – 5pm, Except Thursdays: 1pm – 7pm
RNIB evening: Tuesday 11th April, 5pm – 7pm

 

Keith and Neel Joshi from Microsoft, in Seattle, 2017

 

9e2 2017

Oregon project – 9e2 2017 – Seattle, USA

 

 

 

Posted in Artwork of the Week, Exhibitions, Microsoft Project 2016, Sound Art, Visual Disability 2 Comments »

Happy New Year! – A short review of the last few months

Posted by admin on January 9th, 2017

 

If you are one of those long suffering souls who have been reading my blogs over the last few years….. well, there are changes afoot.  I’ve written close on 300 blogs over this time and for the most, I’ve really enjoyed doing them.  I tried to write a new one each week and for quite a few years did this with very few breaks.  Over the last year – 18 months however, you will have noticed that they have appeared less regularly and indeed, during the whole of 2016 I wrote only 19 blogs I think.   The reasons for this are simply that I have become increasingly busy but at the same time, my little bit of sight has deteriorated further and this means that everything takes even longer and is more difficult to do.  In short, the writing of my weekly blog and ‘artwork of the week’, was taking more and more time to do…..on average, I guess it is taking me almost five hours a week.  With the increased work load now that I am developing the audio visual projects as well as my usual paintings, I just can’t do everything ….and something has to go.  Five hours a week doesn’t sound that much, but over a year that adds up to a huge amount of time which I could better use to produce more work, or promote and sell the work I have.  So then, I’ve decided to update my website less regularly this year.  I’ll be updating it about eight times over the year.  The blogs will become more like reports of what’s been happening over the previous couple of months and the home page will show one of my most recent paintings.  I hope this will still be of interest. Anyway, without further ado, here is a little catch-up on the last few months.

A large part of 2016 was, for me, taken up with The Oregon Project.  This is the large audio visual piece of work I did in collaboration with Microsoft researcher Neel Joshi, Ayrshire sound engineer, Graham Byron, and independent Seattle based film maker, Dan Thornton.  The work finally all came together in mid October when the work was installed as part of the big “9e2” Art, Science and Technology Exhibition in Seattle.  I’ve written much about this project as it developed and so I think the best will be to add the following links.  These will take you to an article and very short video that were commissioned by Microsoft to help promote The Oregon Project. 

article: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/keith-salmon-oregon-project/

video: https://www.facebook.com/Microsoft/videos/10154184382973721/

As you will see, this was a huge project that required many months of almost non-stop work.  As such, I had little or no time to do anything else during the period May – end of October.  This meant that for the first time in almost 18 years, we didn’t do any serious hill or mountain walking during the summer.  Not only had we rapidly become unfit…. we had both put on a few pounds too!  So, on returning to Scotland from Seattle we’ve started to get out walking again.  We’ve only done some easy and fairly short walks but the legs are starting to feel a bit better already.  Our latest outings included a fine little tromp up and over the Dumyat on the edge of the Ochil Hills, just before Christmas and a fine wander up Cairn Table near Muirkirk, a couple of days ago.  Of course, it’s not just the fitness I miss when we don’t get out, it’s the ‘being out in the wild’ bit that I really miss and this is such an important part of my work.  On these two short walks we experienced hugely different conditions.  In the Ochil Hills the light was extremely poor with thick dark low cloud sitting on even this little 400 m hill.  On Cairn Table however, we had almost cloudless skies with very bright low winter sunshine that made the winter colours really glow at times.  I will probably not create paintings based on these two walks but I will draw on the memories of the differing light conditions, at some point in the future. 

I’ve also been working hard on getting back into the actual painting.  The Oregon Project was all about drawing and sound and so the painting got put to one side.  It’s been great getting back to sticky oil paint again and I’ve completed one painting, (see the artwork of the week) and have another three canvases well under way.  I haven’t given up on my smaller acrylic and pastel work either and managed to get several new pieces completed. 

Work in progress

Exhibitions have been rather limited this year too, but I was lucky enough to be invited to show some work at both The Strathearn Gallery in Crieff and Scotlandart.com on Bath Street in Glasgow.  Looking ahead, I will have work showing in an interesting exhibition of contemporary landscape painting taking place in Halifax during the summer.  I’m still waiting final details but will post these nearer the time.

Smaller artworks

The next major event for me however, is the continuation of The Oregon Project work.  We have been invited to show the work at the Tent Gallery in Edinburgh University in April and so we are already planning this.  Unfortunately it isn’t as simple as it sounds as not only will we have to re-configure the work (the space is a different size and shape to the one we used in Seattle), we will also have to generate the funding to bring the work and the US team over for the event.  This is going to be the most difficult part as my limited sight makes it very difficult for me to do all the computer based work required to make applications etc.  Thankfully I’m not on my own with this though, Nita and Graham are both helping and so between the three of us we should get there with a bit of luck.  No doubt that by the time I write my next update, we’ll know quite how successful we’ve been!  More details nearer the time. That said of course, if you are part of a company who sponsor innovative projects, please do get in touch ….we need all the help we can get!  Thank you.

Posted in Documentary, Exhibitions, Galleries with Keith Salmon artwork, Information Updates, Microsoft Project 2016, Personal, Sound Art, Visual Disability No Comments »

Update!

Posted by admin on October 17th, 2016

The Oregon Project

For the best part of the year you have heard me talking about the big sound and drawing project I’ve been working on.  The work is nearing completion with the installation almost built in Seattle and myself and Graham Byron flying out to assist the final install tomorrow.  The work will open to the public on Friday 21st October  as part of the big “9e2” exhibition in Seattle.  Below is a piece I wrote last week and this should give you a good idea of how everything has come together over the last few years.

Background

I trained in Fine Art in the early 1980’s, attending Shrewsbury School of Art, Falmouth School of Art and Newcastle upon Tyne Polytechnic.  In 1990 however, my sight which had until then been fine, deteriorated rapidly and by 1998 when I moved from Wales up to Ayrshire, I was officially registered as blind.

Throughout this period though, I was determined to continue doing my art and have, over the course of time, developed new ways of working that allow me to continue to paint and draw.  I turned professional in 2009 and now work from my studio on Irvine Harbour side, exhibit my work regularly and received the Jolomo Award for Scottish Landscape Painting.  Over the last few years I have been involved in several international projects that have involved creating works in Germany in 2010, Brazil in 2014 and now in Seattle in the USA.

In 2013, a chance meeting with Seattle based landscape photographer and independent film maker Daniel Thornton, (during the preview of my exhibition at ‘the gallery on the corner’ in Edinburgh) led to us working on a documentary project together. The documentary looks at my work as well as the role the visual impairment has played in its development.  The documentary is built around a large drawing project I worked on here in Scotland in late 2014. I created a 5m long, 1.5m high graphite drawing based on Glen Rosa on the Isle of Arran, in the main gallery of the Harbour Arts Centre here in Irvine.  I produced the drawing in the public gallery as part of a bigger exhibition of my work.   I worked on the drawing each day and visitors to the centre could watch it develop.  This was I guess, more a kind of performance piece.  I also wanted the work to be more than a local event and as such arranged for each day’s work to be recorded on a time-lapse camera and then have it posted each evening on the Internet.   The time lapse recordings were made by the resident sound engineer /technician, Graham Byron.

Around that time, I had become aware that the very limited sight I had, was gradually getting worse and I started to wonder what I would do if it became so limited that my drawings became very minimal.  How would I continue to work as a professional artist?   One of my ideas was to use sound in some way to supplement the visual image, but I had no idea how I might go about this.  While talking with Graham during the big drawing project, I mentioned my idea for using sound and asked him how best I go about making the recordings.  He was very enthusiastic and kindly lent me some sound recording equipment along with some basic instructions on using it.  For the whole of 2015 I took the sound recorder with me on our regular walks into the Scottish Highlands and started to develop ideas for possible new work.

I had kept Dan Thornton up to date on this work and by chance he heard of an interesting project being developed by Microsoft researcher Neel Joshi.  The idea was to use Microsoft Kinect technology to create a system to help visually impaired people interpret two dimensional images with sound.  Neel had created a prototype and was looking to work with a visual artist who also worked with sound.  Dan told him about me and put us in contact.

The Oregon Project

After a good deal of discussion in late 2015, Dan Thornton and I were invited to join the team working on the project, which itself had been established in order to take part in the big “9e2” arts and science exhibition taking place in Seattle in October 2016.  A general view of the exhibition, its purpose and aims, can be found by visiting the website: www.9e2seattle.com .

My partner Nita and I flew out to Seattle in early May where we joined the full team to talk about the project, test the prototype and set plans for the work.  We decided to try and create something that was more than just a rather blunt interpretive tool for visually impaired people.  Instead we planned to try and create an art installation that was experimental, challenging and enjoyable for all concerned but that also had as an integral part of it…. an audio interpretive element that would allow visually impaired people to better interpret the purely visual side of the piece….. this being 3 large (8’ x 4’) pastel drawings.

Ever since first meeting with Dan Thornton, he had expressed an interest in seeing how I would interpret the NW American landscape and for this project he had organised a short artist’s residency for me at the Josephy Centre for Arts and Culture in the small town of Joseph in NE Oregon.  After our initial meeting at Microsoft we travelled down to Joseph where we spent 8 days exploring the stunningly varied landscape.  The plan was for me to gather as much information about it as possible and as such we were out in the landscape every day.  I did many small sketches, we all took numerous photos and Dan and his assistant Cindy Apple recorded the process on film.  We also made many sound recordings too.  By the time we had returned to Seattle we had formulated a plan for the work.  I would create three large pastel drawings based on three different views of the Hell’s Canyon region of Oregon.  One based on the view from the canyon rim, one from a position well down in the canyon and one based on the view we had at the river’s edge in the base of the canyon.

Hell's Canyon region, Oregon

Hell’s Canyon region, Oregon

Hell's Canyon region, Oregon

Hell’s Canyon region, Oregon

Hell's Canyon region, Oregon

Hell’s Canyon region, Oregon

As far as I understand it the Microsoft connect technology will recognise a person’s location within a three dimensional space.  We would use this system to direct sounds to a viewer and these sounds would change according to their position in front of the drawing ….whether they are close to or further back from the surface of the drawing .  The Kinect technology can also recognise a person pointing at different parts of the drawing and once again send a corresponding soundtrack.  We decided that the work would have three different levels of sound:

Level 3: Furthest away from the drawing.  Here you would hear sound tracks relating to the view depicted in the drawing and mixed from recordings we made out on location in the canyon.

Level 2:  A position closer to the drawing.  Here we have added computer generated tones to match the main blocks of colour within the drawings.  You would hear the main colours.

Level 1: Very close to the drawing surface.  In this position the sounds you would hear would be made from recordings of the actual drawing process ….you would be ‘in’ the drawing. These sound tracks are really quite abstract and relate directly to the different types of mark used in the creation of the drawings.

On returning to Scotland in late May, I started work on the three large drawings.  I also spent many hours listening to the sound recordings Dan and I had made during our time in Oregon and selecting the elements that might best be used.  At this stage of things we invited Graham Byron to join the team and together the two of us created 18 different individual soundtracks for each of the three drawings.  I had no idea how we could mix these sound tracks and so it was great working with Graham who had been in the music industry as a sound engineer and musician for over 30 years.  In short, it was like drawing with sound ….quite amazing.

Dan, Neel and a colleague of theirs, Ryan (along with several other folk) have been working away in Seattle designing the technical side of this project and they will shortly be starting to build the installation.  Graham and I will be travelling out there on 17th October in time to help with the final installation ….adding the sound tracks to the work.  The piece opens to the public, along with many other installations and performance projects …on 21st October.

This is a very experimental piece of work created by 4  people with very different skills……

Neel Joshi: Microsoft researcher  ….this project was his idea.

Daniel Thornton: Independent film maker, landscape photographer and educator.

Graham Byron: Sound engineer and musician.

Keith Salmon: Visual and audio artist

This is a collaborative work and each element and area of expertise is as vital to the whole as the others.  This is also a very experimental piece and we will only know how well it works once the installation is complete and we start getting feedback from visitors to the work.  Hopefully everyone will be able to enjoy it.

Future plans

The Oregon Project is to return to Scotland in April 2017 where it will be exhibited in the gallery in Edinburgh University.

I think we are all hoping that The Oregon Project is just a start and that we will develop these initial ideas to create new and even more exciting pieces in the future.  We are very keen to create a large Scottish sound drawing in 2017.  Watch and listen to this space!

Posted in Commissioned Artwork, Documentary, Exhibitions, Information Updates, Microsoft Project 2016, Sound Art, Sound Recording, Uncategorized Tags: , , No Comments »

Phew!

Posted by admin on September 16th, 2016

You’ll gather from the lack of blogs and other updates that things have continued to be rather hectic this summer. This then is just a quick update on what I’ve been working on since my last blog.

The majority of my time has been spent working on the Oregon / Seattle drawing and audio project. I finished the third big pastel drawing a few days ago and actually signed all three of the drawings! So then, that side of the work is now complete and all I have to do is find a safe way to ship them over to Seattle. My partner Nita has been searching the net for suitable shipping tubes and she has found something that should work well. On the audio side of the project, we are getting pretty close to completion. Graham and I have been mixing the individual one minute long sound tracks that will go with the drawings and we have just six more to mix. Graham is arriving at the studio later this afternoon and we plan to have a long session in the hope of getting these final tracks finished by the end of the evening. I’ve bought in a fresh pack of coffee and the coffee maker will no doubt be working overtime too!

scottish landscape paintings

‘A freezing February afternoon, Beinn-an-Dothaidh ‘

“This image is now available as a gift card. Please contact the artist for more details”.

Of course, there is the other side of this project too ….the technical side of how to deliver the soundtracks to people viewing the drawings in the exhibition. This is all being done by our American team in Seattle, Dan Thornton, Neel Joshi and some of their colleagues. The work will be an installation piece and as such they will be having to build a purpose made space for the work and then rig it with all the technology and sound equipment. They are currently building a mock-up to test the system prior to creating the work in the “9e2” exhibition space. Nita and I will be travelling out to Seattle with Graham and his wife about a week before the “9e2” exhibition opens to the public and so we’ll be there in time to help with the final preparations. It’s really exciting although somewhat daunting if I’m honest. The “9e2” exhibition is a very big event with many teams of artists and scientists creating installation and performance works and so to be part of this is quite something. I’ll be posting links to the “9e2” website shortly so that you can get a better idea of what the event is all about. ….and if you live in or around Seattle, get some tickets.

Since finishing the 3 Oregon drawings I have been back working on a couple of new acrylic and pastel paintings. Both of these are in their early stages but are based on views Nita and I had when we climbed Beinn Odhair near Tyndrum last month. We were lucky to see the hills under perfect conditions that day and the paintings depict two very different viewpoints. One of them shows the view of Beinn Odhair from below, as you head north along the West Highland Way. The second painting is a scene looking from the summit of Beinn Odhair, across to the magnificent Crianlarich Hills. I’ll post images of them on my Face Book page soon: Keith Salmon – Scottish Landscape Artist.

scottish landscape painting

‘Below Clach Lethaidh, Winter’

“This image is now available as a gift card. Please contact the artist for more details”.

Finally, I just wanted to give warning that I have decided to stop writing my regular blogs. For a good number of years now I have been writing a blog almost every week …… indeed, I’ve written over 290 blogs since starting. It has for the most part, been very enjoyable. More recently however, with the continued slow deterioration of my bit of sight, I’ve found that it is taking longer and longer to do. Now, to write the blog, source and send photos and to write a weekly “Artwork of the week” for the homepage…..well, it usually takes me over 4 hours. As everything else is also taking much longer to do, I’ve decided that I need to prioritise. The 200 hours I spend each year writing blogs should now I think, be spent promoting my work in more direct ways. So then, I’ll be writing a few more blogs up until the end of October but after that I’ll just be writing 4 quarterly “What’s been happening” updates. This isn’t great I know, but it is just a case of adapting to my circumstances ….which is what I’ve done ever since my sight started to deteriorate back in 1990. I hope those of you who have followed these blogs over the years have enjoyed some of them …and haven’t winced too much with the bad grammar etc.. For those of you who use Face Book, you’ll be able to follow the day to day development of the work, on my business Face Book page: Keith Salmon – Scottish Landscape Artist.

scottish landscape painting

‘Memories of a winter day, The Cairngorms’

“This image is now available as a gift card. Please contact the artist for more details”.

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Posted in Documentary, Exhibitions, Information Updates, Microsoft Project 2016 No Comments »

A long overdue update!

Posted by admin on July 29th, 2016

It’s almost 3 weeks since my last blog so I thought I’d better get down to it and write some kind of piece updating everyone with what I’ve been doing during this time.  Unfortunately there aren’t vast amounts to write about as in short, all I’ve been doing is working!  In all honesty though, I did have one day off a little over a week ago and spent it pottering around the garden at home.

We’ve done no walking of any note sadly and I just know that when we do eventually get time to head out into the hills again, my legs will be COMPLAINING!

climbing a mountain

Mountain Climbing

The reason for this lull in blogs and walking is simply because I am completely tied up with working on this big drawing / audio project.  There is so much to do in what is a relatively short space of time.  I have to complete the three big Oregon drawings, (each almost 8’ x 4’) and we have to sort out all the recordings we made, make new recordings and then mix 54 individual one minute long sound tracks, (18 for each drawing)……. all by the end of September so that we have time to ship everything over to Seattle ready for the team over there to install it in the exhibition space.

Now that the 3 drawings are well underway, sound engineer Graham Byron, has been working alongside me to help create and mix the kind of audio tracks I want.  I have to say that this side of things has been a bit of a worry for me as I couldn’t really see how we could manipulate and use the recordings we’d made.  When we finally came to starting to mix the sounds however, suddenly I started to see the light!  It was amazing; it was like drawing with sound….. really exciting.  I’m suddenly now a lot more confident about the outcome of this project and what is even more important; I am a lot more confident about my future as a professional artist.  The whole reason for my starting to explore the use of sound with my work, is that I am concerned about the gradual deterioration of the little bit of sight I have.

Abstract Landscape Art

Abstract Landscape

On top of all this work I have also been preparing for my talk, ‘Recording the landscape’, at the Harbour Arts Centre theatre.  This took place yesterday evening and was a 2 hour event.  I’m glad to say that it went off really well and that we had a good turn out.  It took a lot of work preparing for it as I have to get everything I’m going to say, into my head…. I can’t see a script or anything written. ….. I just have to talk.  I divided the evening into two halves, the first being mainly about my early career and how I came to join my art with the hill walking I do.  I used photographs to illustrate this.  After the break however, I just had a selection of paintings and drawings on stage and spent the second half of the evening talking about and explaining how the work is created.  I finished off by speaking briefly about this new use of sound and where I hoped this project would lead in the future.

I’m glad to say it seemed to go down extremely well and it was certainly very enjoyable.  Another important reason however for organizing this event was so that I could record the talk in order to promote myself as a guest speaker.  I see this as a very good way to promote my work as an artist and after doing a number of talks for various organisations over the past few years, it seems like this could be a good addition to my art practice.  As such, the whole talk was filmed last night and once we get it edited, we’ll have something to show folk what they will get if they book me as guest speaker

Right then, there are no obvious photos to include with this blog so I think I’ll just pluck a couple of nice hill snaps from the album and put them up so there is something interesting to look at!

Learning to climb

Learning to climb in snow

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Impression of Irvine Church

Irvine Church

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Posted in Buildings, Harbour Arts Centre, Microsoft Project 2016, Personal, Sound Recording, Visual Disability No Comments »

Seattle / Oregon drawing project – a quick update

Posted by admin on July 8th, 2016

At this time of year we would normally be getting out for long summer hikes in the mountains, but this year I am so busy that I’ve been in my studio nearly every day since we got back from the United States about six weeks ago.

I’ve basically been working on the big Seattle / Oregon drawing and audio project nearly all of this time.  As you know, I’m creating three large 8’ x 4’ pastel drawings for the project, all based on the Hell’s Canyon area of Oregon.  Anyone who has been to my studio will know also that it is pretty cluttered and so finding the space to do all three drawings has meant some major rearrangements!  This would have been impossible if it wasn’t for a wee bit of luck.  When I got back to my studio from Seattle on May 24th I learnt that my colleague, photographic artist Alex Boyd, was leaving the Courtyard to take up an exciting new arts based job on the Isle of Lewis. It is a great shame he is leaving, but it freed up his studio and painter Maree Hughes who has been working in the small studio upstairs from mine, took the opportunity to move to the bigger space vacated by Alex.  This of course meant that I had the opportunity to rent this additional space upstairs which in turn has allowed me to work on all three large drawings at the same time downstairs.  Phew!!!

abstract landscape paintings

The new look studio ….three big drawing boards

It has been a hectic  last week for all three of us with a mass shuffle of gear but everything is now done and with a bit of luck Alex is now on or heading for the Isle of Lewis. The very best of luck to him with his work up north.  We recently swapped a piece of work each …… he selected one of my big graphite drawings for his new wall and I selected one of his fine prints of Cir Mhor on Arran.  I have this piece hanging in my small work room at home alongside another fabulous photograph by Courtyard Studios rep Brian Craig.  The two pieces look fabulous together as Brian’s photo is also black and white and also landscape.

abstract landscape paintings

Hells Canyon drawings 1 and 2, in progress

On Sunday last I moved all my painting gear upstairs where I’ll now be doing all my smaller acrylic and pastel work.  It took me most of the day to sort it all out but I now have the third wall free downstairs and on Tuesday morning I had another 8’ x 4’ drawing board delivered and Nita and I set about fixing it to the wall.  We are not the fastest of carpenters but after almost six hours not only was the new board all firmly in place but the final large piece of 200 gm white cartridge paper was all fixed to it and ready for me to start drawing.

The first two pieces are well under way and later today I’ll be starting the final drawing ….this piece to be based on a location in the bottom of Hell’s Canyon, right by the side of the river where it cut through a narrow cliff lined section.

abstract landscape painting

the new big drawing board …all ready to go

With all three pieces now on the go, I’ve turned my efforts more towards the audio side of things.  I’ve been working with Ayrshire based sound engineer Graham Byron and we are starting to sort out all the various recordings Dan and I made while in Oregon.  Graham has been ‘cleaning’ them up so that Dan and his team over in Seattle can start to fit them to the audio system they have been creating for the purpose of this project.  I’m going to be spending many many hours listening to sound files over the next couple of months and will also be heading out into the landscape soon to record extra close up material.  It’s all go but very exciting.  Must get a good relaxing walk in the Highlands soon though ….or my head will explode!

Posted in Commissioned Artwork, Commissions, Documentary, Microsoft Project 2016, N. America, Sound Art, Sound Recording Tags: , , , No Comments »

Art and landscape – a short trip to the American North West

Posted by admin on May 24th, 2016

This morning before leaving home for my studio, I had another quick look at the map of the United States of America. I looked at the state of Washington in the far North West and then across and down just a little bit to the state of Oregon. It looked just a short distance on the map until you glance at how much more …much, much, much more of the USA there is. The journey we made from Seattle to the small town of Joseph in Oregon seemed long and the landscape amazingly varied and huge and yet the map says there is so much more. It really is a very big country.

In reality of course we caught just a tiny glimpse of its beauty and grandeur but it has quite taken me aback. I wonder now why it has taken me 56 years to get to see some of this amazing country. Probably something to do with being an artist and always being skint I guess. Strange then that art was the reason Nita and I were over exploring this stunning landscape but very exciting and rewarding.

art trip to Oregon

Wild flowers at Buckhorn, Hells Canyon, Oregon

As you already know, I am taking part in a collaborative art and science project with a small research team working at Microsoft in Seattle. The piece of work we are creating will combine 2 dimensional visual arts with an audio system that delivers different levels of audio / sound interpretation depending on the proximity of the viewer to the artwork. The purpose of the two week long trip was two fold. Firstly, we went to meet up with the team I’ll be working with. We needed to fix the basics for the work and to start planning how the audio and technological side of this piece might work. In short, we had two full meetings at one of the huge Microsoft buildings just outside of Seattle and two more informal meetings in restaurants in the city.

Art trip to Oregon

In the Hells Canyon area of Oregon

The second part of the trip, lasting for 11 days, saw us driving down to the small town of Joseph in Oregon where a week long artist’s residency had been arranged for me at the Josephy Center of Arts and Culture. The main emphasis of this part of the trip was for me to explore the very varied and rich landscape of this part of Oregon and to record as much information as possible about it in order for me to create three large (8’ x 4’) pastel drawings on my return to Scotland. We also needed to make a large number of sound recordings while out in the landscape in order to support the audio side of the artwork. We made the journey with film maker and photographers, Daniel Thornton and Cindy Apple, Dan who is the lead audio artist for the project and Cindy who was making a photographic / film record of the trip and work.

As I say, the landscape in this region of Oregon is incredibly varied and has three main areas. The small town of Joseph sits at a little over 4000 ft and has the huge 10,000 ft peaks of the Wallowa Mountains rising immediately behind it. In the opposite direction lie two very different regions, a huge area of high prairie and an even larger area of deep canyons known as the Hell’s Canyon area. All three of these very distinct geological regions are stunningly beautiful and are very individual. We needed to visit all three areas on our arrival and with time so short, I had to make a decision as to which area I would base my drawings on. The mountains and prairie were amazing but I decided that I’d work on the canyon area ….it is so different from the landscape I’m used to.

Art trip to Oregon

Nita and Kendrick, Hells Canyon region, Oregon

We were very lucky to be guided on three occasions by a local botanist and wildlife photographer called Kendrick Moholt and he took us to some amazing locations within the complex region of canyons. On the Monday we drove to Buckhorn, a view point over looking one of the huge deep canyons. When we arrived everywhere was in cloud (we were at around 5000ft) but as we waited in this high and quiet place, gradually the cloud started to break up and lift and the scale and depth of the canyon became evident. It was quite a breathtaking scene. The following day saw us way down in the canyon driving along a dirt road to reach a magnificent viewpoint where I spent several hours drawing. The canyon at this point dropped steeply down to the river but also climbed high above. Finally Kendrick took us to the farm of a friend of his, situated right in the base of the canyon next to the river. It was an impressive situation and once again I was able to spend quite a while drawing and recording. The final large works will I think be based on these three locations and I am hoping that the sound recordings we made will convey the different positions within the canyon.

Art trip to Oregon

The Columbia River Gorge

We got back to Scotland yesterday morning and this is the first day back in my studio. I’m planning to start work on some preliminary studies in the next day or so and will also be starting work on sorting through the numerous sound recordings we made.

It was a really amazing trip and the people we met were so friendly and helpful. There is a huge amount of work to be done for this project over the next four months but it is very exciting. When all is complete we’ll be exhibiting it as part of the big “9e2”project in Seattle in late October. After that, we are hoping that the work can be shown in other locations and with a bit of luck, brought over to Scotland…..hopefully to be exhibited alongside a large Scottish audio / drawing work that I’m planning. As they say ….watch this space!

Finally, my thanks must go out to Dan who has done so much to put this project into place. …. I look forward to working with you and the others on the project over the next few months or so.

Posted in Documentary, Information Updates, Microsoft Project 2016, N. America, Sound Art, Sound Recording Tags: , , , , , , , , No Comments »

    Contact Details

  • Tel: 07568 380552 or 01294 216427
    E-mail: keith@keithsalmon.org